Suzie, You know me and the weather...I watch it like a hawk all the time. Glad the info is helpful. I try to post a heads-up if I am home near a computer. Some people, like Diane (Owiebrain) are in remote areas where the NOAA Weather Radio alert can't reach them consistently, if at all, so I am always especially watchful for storms moving towards those folks. I've been out in the garden, attempting to harvest sugar snaps and I say "attempting" because the wind has picked up in the last hour and is giving the peas and their trellis a thorough shaking. They are waving back and forth, dancing on the wind. It makes picking peas a bit challenging. Down here in southern OK it was a very cool morning, and then around 10 a.m. or so it was like someone flipped a switch. Our dew point has gone up 5 points in a couple of hours is now is at 68. That's bad, and if dewpoints hit the 70s, that's very, very bad. Y'all be careful up there. The NOAA weather radio is cautioning that the storms likely will be hitting OKC during afternoon rush hour, and that's just the worst possible time. I know many of you are well-experienced in dealing with weather like this and do think sometimes you intuitively 'feel' it coming once you've experienced that odd feeling in the air. If you watch The Weather Channel and have followed this year's usage of Dr. Forbe's TorCon Index, y'all should know he's giving NE OK an 8 on a scale of 1-10. That's just about the highest chance of tornadic development conditions he ever gives anyone. I think he gave one area a 9 week before last and they got hit pretty hard by storms. I have that uneasy feeling in my bones, but more for y'all up there than us down here. I think the KS-OK state line area may be in the bullseye, and Kansas and Missouri are in just as much danger as northeastern and eastern OK. Dawn

Reed, I feel sorry for Tulsa. This morning Dr. Forbes distinctly mentioned Tulsa having a '7' TorCon more than he mentioned OKC, though at one point he said the storms would form near OKC and move towards Tulsa. The issue will be how violent they are when they form...even if they form in the OKC area, they could be violent from the start or they might gain in strength as discrete cells merge together into a squall line. I think today I wouldn't want to be in Iowa either. We have crazy wind here today. I guess it must be from outflow boundaries from yesterday's storms. I have gigantic trees north of my garden and they were dancing back and forth in the wind so much that it was scaring me and I came inside to get away from them. If a tree is going to fall on my garden, it needs to do it while I am not in the garden. Wulfleton, I am sorry you're feeling homesick. Count your blessings every single day because you do have a lot to be grateful for. Oklahoma has beautiful weather in April and October. The rest of the year we just cringe, hold our breath and hope for the best. The good thing is that once you have learned how to successfully garden in OK, you can garden anywhere. Today's weather likely won't turn out to be nothing, but maybe we'll luck out and the worst storms will hit sparsely populated areas so at least fewer people are harmed that way. Dawn

Jay, I missed your earlier post because I was writing mine. I was trying to watch the radar last night to see if you got more rain, but the storm split a couple of times and I wasn't sure if the rain reached you. I'm glad you got those plants staked so any wind that accompanied the storms couldn't blow them over. Three and a half inches of rain is great and I suppose the seven inches is wonderful too although that much in a short period can cause problems, especially in tight soil. I'm sure you'll get additional fruitset during this cool spell. How wonderful that will be. I am seeing a lot of new blooms the last couple of days, so think our plants will set more as well if the highs don't go too high. We just haven't cooled off nearly as much down here as many of you who are a lot further north. Today is the first day that it feels really good and cool outside. Any cooldown at this time of year is good though, even if it only means a high temp of 90 or 95 instead or 98 or 102. Y'all, our rain arrived very late, around 3 a.m. and was a very loud thunder-and-lightning storm with a little rain thrown in. We had a little more than 3/4s of an inch, so added to this week's earlier rain, we have had 1.7" this week, which is a lot of rain for us in July. My garden is looking deliriously happy and quite green. No violent weather here. I was watching the storm make its way towards us when it was still in Texas and producing winds of 100 mph, but I knew it would run out of steam (in terms of windspeed and such) before it got here, and it did. I'm glad a lot of you who have been needing rain up there in central OK have gotten a lot this week--your drought type numbers (rainfall, fractional water, KBDI) were starting to worry me. George's and Scott's drought numbers still do worry me. Lisa, Just a little more rain and your gauge will start overflowing like it did last year! I'm glad you got your new car out of the hail zone in time. Carol, So the rain was just a little late arriving? Better late than never. George, I have been mystified by the way the rain keeps missing y'all there in Tahlequah. I have watched it closely since spring, and it does astonish me that y'all are having our usual 'dry holes' in the radar/rainfall. Never in my life would I have thought you'd ever have a rainfall shortage there (or that Scott's area would be abnormally dry either). I am hoping and praying that you and Jerreth get rainfall there so that your garden will produce well. I hope Scott gets some rain too. Y'all have been far too dry for far too long. You have my sympathy, George, because I understand the frustration of being surrounded by rain that somehow continues to miss your particular location. You are starting to sound like me last year, but you can't help it....you're experiencing similar conditions and frustrations. Hopefully you'll get some rain today and, if not today, then soon. Down here, we always say it takes a flood to end a drought, so it wouldn't surprise me if you get some really heavy rainfall to end your drought there, and hopefully it will be sooner rather than later. Y'all know that the Oklahoma weather is all messed up and out of sync when Marietta has had more rain than Tahlequah. A lot of us still have rain in the forecast on one or more of the next few days. How odd is this rainy pattern for the end of July/beginning of August? Now, let us all hope for a cooler-than-usual August, because that would be almost too good to be true. Dawn

Towns and villages west and northwest of Chicago have been hit hard by wedge tornados. The town of Fairdale, pop. 2200 is wiped out, with one confirmed death, and may have more. Crews are going door to door looking for victims and offering help. Strangers are helping farmers round up their livestock, or are looking for pets. I am well east of the storms path but we have been watcing the news and all the lighting the storm has generated. It was a wild night and we have been damn lucky that it missed the Ohare area. My friends in the area are all safe. Please, set up a plan for weather emergancies. Although we are on the outer edge of Chicago, we have a plan to get us and the dog into the basement. Candles, battery radio, comfy chairs, a first aid kit and a crate. Cell phone and flashlights were at the ready if we need to take cover.